Loss puts Heat, Spo in hot seat

MIAMI – When the playoffs open next weekend, the Toronto Raptors will be at home.

And, almost certainly, so will the Miami Heat.

Lou Williams scored 29 points, DeMar DeRozan added 24 and the Raptors put the Heat on the brink of playoff elimination with a 107-104 victory Saturday night.

Greivis Vasquez and Kyle Lowry each scored 12 points and Patrick Patterson had 11 for the Raptors. They clinched home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs and dealt an absolutely crippling blow to Miami’s postseason hopes.

“For our organization, where we are, the process we’re going through, I think it’s important,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said about wrapping up home-court. “You can’t take anything for granted. ... These guys fought for it, scratched for it. They earned it.”

Dwyane Wade scored 30 points for the Heat, who can only get to 37 wins – the number that Brooklyn and Boston are already at, putting them in the No. 7 and No. 8 spots in the Eastern Conference race. Goran Dragic scored 22 points for Miami and Hassan Whiteside finished with 16 points and 18 rebounds.

But Whiteside also missed 12 free throws, going 4 for 16, and as a team the Heat went 24 of 44 from the line.

“Nobody needs to feel sorry for any of us,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “This is what you sign up for in this business. You don’t know what’s going to happen ... and this year has had its challenges for all of us. But we’ve been grinding and fighting.”

In Orlando, Florida, Cole Aldrich hit a career-high 19 points and New York beat Orlando, 80-79, in a game that had the lowest-scoring quarter in NBA history.